Watershed management

Also called: Watershed development · Topic: Water Resources of India: Availability, Use and Conservation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 4 "Water Resources"; Class 12, Ch 9 "Geographical Perspective on Selected Issues and Problems"

Meaning

Watershed management (also called watershed development) means using the surface water and groundwater of a watershed carefully. It does this by stopping runoff and recharging groundwater through structures such as percolation tanks and recharge wells. In a broader sense, it means conserving, renewing and wisely using all the land, water, plant, animal and human resources of that watershed.

It matters because groundwater levels are falling and many farms depend only on rain. Cheap, local watershed works add to the supply from large dams. They also only work when the people who live in the watershed plan the work, build it and look after it.

Explanation

What a watershed is

• Watershed: an area of land that drains all its rainwater into one stream, river or lake.
• A ridge (a line of high land) forms its boundary. Rain falling on one side of the ridge flows into one watershed. Rain falling on the other side flows into the next one.
• Because all the water in a watershed flows to one outlet, the watershed is a natural unit for planning.

Two meanings of watershed management

• Narrow sense: managing water.
• It means using surface water and groundwater efficiently.
• Stopping runoff: runoff is rainwater that flows away fast over the land surface.

• Recharging groundwater: water is helped to soak down through percolation tanks and recharge wells.

• Broad sense: managing all resources.

• It means conserving, regenerating and wisely using land, water, plants, animals and people together.
• The aim is a balance between nature and society.

How it works: from runoff to recharge

• Rain falls and starts to run off.
• Without any barrier, water rushes downhill and carries soil away.

• Most of it leaves the area before it can soak into the ground.

• Structures slow the water and hold it.

• Check dam: a small, low barrier of stone, earth or concrete built across a stream or gully. It slows the water, silt settles behind the wall, erosion is checked, and water soaks down.
• Percolation tank: a pond or small reservoir that stores runoff long enough for it to percolate (seep slowly down) and refill nearby wells.
• Recharge shaft or well: a pit or bore that carries surface water straight down to deeper aquifers. An aquifer is an underground layer of rock or sand that holds water.
• Johad: a traditional crescent-shaped earthen dam that catches runoff.

• Bridge-cum-Bhandara: a newer structure in Maharashtra that both stores water and recharges groundwater [5].

• Result:

• The water table (the top level of underground water) rises, and dry wells fill again.
• There is less soil erosion and less flooding.
• Groundwater can feed streams in the dry months, so a dried river may start to flow again.

Conditions for success

• Community participation is the key condition.
• The people of the watershed must plan the work, do it and maintain it.

• In Ralegan Siddhi, villagers gave voluntary labour (shramdaan). This "socialised the costs", so everyone shared the work and no outside money was needed.

• Rules on how land and water are used.

• Ralegan Siddhi banned open grazing and tree felling. It also banned sugarcane, because the crop uses a lot of water.

• Arvary Pani Sansad makes rules on water use, the choice of crops and the digging of wells.

• Upkeep after building.

• A structure helps only if it is looked after. In Chennai, many harvesting structures were neglected, and the city still faced a severe water crisis in 2019.

Where it occurs

• Ralegan Siddhi (Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra):
• A drought-prone village in the rain-shadow (dry) zone of the Deccan.
• The change was led by Anna Hazare, a retired army driver, from 1975.

• The village repaired a leaking percolation tank. Groundwater rose and seven wells below the tank filled with water again.

• Arvari basin (Alwar district, Rajasthan):

• It lies in the semi-arid Aravalli hills.
• From the mid-1980s, villagers worked with Tarun Bharat Sangh, an NGO led by Rajendra Singh, to build johads.
• The dried-up Arvari river began to flow again.

• In 1999, the villages formed the Arvary Pani Sansad, a "water parliament".

• Regional fit of structures:

• Check dams: Saurashtra (Gujarat), Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
• Percolation tanks: hard-rock Deccan plateau areas, such as Maharashtra.
• Recharge shafts: cities and alluvial plains.

• Springshed revival (reviving the land that feeds mountain springs): the steep hills of the North-East.

• Government programmes:

• Haryali (2003): a watershed project sponsored by the Central Government and carried out by gram panchayats (village councils). It helps villagers conserve water for drinking, irrigation, fisheries and afforestation (planting trees).
• Neeru-Meeru ("Water and You"): an Andhra Pradesh programme in which people build water harvesting structures with their own labour.
• Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP): started in 2009–10. In 2015–16 it was merged into the Watershed Development Component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY) [3].
• WDC-PMKSY 2.0: approved on 15 December 2021 for 2021–26. It targets 49.50 lakh ha, with a central outlay of ₹8,134 crore [3]. Centre–state funding is 60:40. It is 90:10 for hilly and North-Eastern states, including Sikkim. Union Territories get 100% central funding [3].
• Jal Shakti Abhiyan-I (2019): covered 1,592 blocks in 256 water-stressed districts. Watershed development was one of its five focus areas [6].
• Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain: launched on 22 March 2021, World Water Day [2]. By March 2022, about 19.18 lakh watershed development works had been done [2].

Don't confuse with

• Rainwater harvesting: this means catching rain where it falls, often on rooftops, and storing it or sending it into the ground. Watershed management is wider. It treats a whole drainage area from ridge to outlet and covers land, plants and people too.
• Multipurpose (large) dam: a big dam stores water for canals, power and flood control. A check dam is small and low. It only slows a stream so that water percolates. It is not a storage dam for canals.
• Percolation tank vs ordinary storage tank: a percolation tank is built to recharge wells nearby. It does not supply water directly.
• Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM): this means managing water, land and related resources together across a whole river basin. Watershed management usually works at a smaller, local scale, but its success stories are building blocks for IWRM.

Prelims Hooks

• Ralegan Siddhi is in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra (Anna Hazare, from 1975). Arvary Pani Sansad is in Alwar, Rajasthan (Tarun Bharat Sangh, 1999). Exams often swap these place–state pairs as a trap.
• Haryali (2003) is a Central programme carried out by gram panchayats. Neeru-Meeru belongs to Andhra Pradesh.
• IWMP (2009–10) was merged into WDC-PMKSY in 2015–16. WDC-PMKSY 2.0 runs for 2021–26 and added springshed rejuvenation on NITI Aayog's advice [3].
• The claimed results of WDC-PMKSY 1.0 were that the groundwater table rose by about 3 m on average and farmers' income rose by about 70% [4].
• Trap: a check dam slows a stream and lets water percolate. A percolation tank recharges wells. Neither supplies water directly the way a canal dam does.
• Jal Shakti Abhiyan-I (2019) had five focus areas, and watershed development was one of them. It covered 256 water-stressed districts [6].

Mains Points

• Why it is needed (GS-III):
• Groundwater levels are falling, and drought-prone rain-shadow and semi-arid areas depend only on rain.
• Watershed works are cheap and local, so they add to the supply from large multipurpose dams.

• The CGWB Master Plan 2020 proposes about 1.42 crore recharge structures to harness about 185 BCM of water. It gives advice only, and states fund the work through MGNREGS and PMKSY [5].

• Community participation decides success:

• In Ralegan Siddhi, shared labour and village rules (no grazing, no sugarcane) made the gains last. But the model relied on one leader and on heavy use of chemical fertiliser.
• In the Arvari basin, johads and a "water parliament" brought a river back to life.

• Lesson: institutions and upkeep matter as much as building structures. NCERT notes that such success stories are still few, so people need to be made aware of these methods.

• How policy has changed:

• Haryali and Neeru-Meeru (led by panchayats and people) → IWMP → WDC-PMKSY 2.0 (springsheds; 60:40 and 90:10 funding) [3] → Jal Shakti Abhiyan and Catch the Rain (pooling of existing schemes, geo-tagging of water bodies) [2][6].
• Choose structures to suit the region: check dams and percolation tanks on the hard-rock Deccan, johads in semi-arid Rajasthan, and springshed revival in the North-East hills.

Related concepts

• Rainwater harvesting
• Rooftop rainwater harvesting
• Shillong rooftop rainwater harvesting
• Tamil Nadu rainwater harvesting mandate
• Check dam
• Percolation tank
• Haryali
• Ralegan Siddhi
• Arvary Pani Sansad

Read more

• Rainwater harvesting and watershed management